LONDON -- Highlands, the London-listed natural resources company, is pleased to announce that it has successfully mobilized and assembled a horizontal drilling rig at its East Denver Niobrara Project, a shale oil and gas project in Colorado, and commenced drilling its first well on Aug. 10, 2017.

Based on strong shareholder uptake in the Open Offer completed July 31, which was not previously included in the Company’s budgets, the Company has been able to achieve meaningful operational advantages by spudding two wells in series. The Company will first drill and set approximately 2,100 ft of surface casing for the Wildhorse 5-64 15-16-1BHZ, which is designed to target the Niobrara B horizon, then immediately shift the rig to drill and set surface casing for the adjacent Powell 5-64-15-16-1CHZ well, which targets the deeper Niobrara C formation. The Company will then continue drilling out the remainder of the deeper Niobara C Powell well, which will let the Company gain valuable data about the shallower Niobrara B on the way down. The well cost of the Powell and Wildhorse are essentially equal, and this enhanced drilling plan will allow Highlands to drill the remainder of the Wildhorse well in due course with the benefit of additional geologic data obtained in the Powell well.

Drilling and casing the Wildhorse’s surface casing is expected to take several days, walking the rig to the Powell well will take approximately one day, then drilling operations for Powell are expected to last approximately two weeks with a targeted TD of 18,247 ft, representing the total vertical and horizontal distance drilled in the well. The Company will update the market of significant milestones throughout this process.